External field control of charge transmission through single molecules: Switching effects and transient currents

► Computations are presented of the transient current through a single molecule if an external laser pulse excitation is switched-on and -off. ► If the molecule-lead coupling is small the switch-on and switching-off of the laser pulse excitation is considerably disturbed by a transient behavior of the current. ► If the molecule-lead coupling reaches larger values the switching behavior of the junction is much more regular.